Two Maltese 'united' by the lure of the Arctic

A Maltese artist living in the UK has helped a Maltese woman who hopes to take part in a seven-day Arctic dog sledging challenge in Norway in February.

Elizabeth De Gaetano, 25, needed to raise £3,250 to take part in the challenge, £1,000 of which will go to the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute. She has raised some money, including a sponsorship from Allied Newspapers, but Charles Bezzina's gesture means she has reached the minimum.

Mr Bezzina, who originally came from Floriana, read about her attempt on the internet when he was doing research on the Arctic for his own painting projects. He was intrigued by the idea of helping her.

"I felt 'Here are two Maltese people who never met and who can help each other to achieve different objectives'. Mine was to achieve recognition for some of the work I have been doing in conjunction with landscape painting, while Betta's was to achieve the sponsorship target," he said.

It was an auspicious contact. He offered her two paintings that she could auction but the institute was so interested in them that it decided to keep them with the £900 value being deducted from her quota. The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge will now include his works in its public collection.

Like Ms De Gaetano, Mr Bezzina is fascinated by the Arctic.

He has been living in the UK for 37 years and spent 30 years working as a logistics engineering manager. He only became a painter after his mother died. He trekked in the Sahara to raise money for cancer, which he described as a life-changing experience. At the age of 49, he decided to leave his "comfortable executive life" and, after studying, became an art teacher.

Slowly but surely he found acceptance as an artist. He had an exhibition at the Phoenicia in 1999 and is planning another in Malta within the next two years. He has also exhibited in London at the Royal Commonwealth Society and recently at the Northampton Museum and Gallery where he had a one-man show entitled Sacred Landscapes - Fragile Earth.

The Arctic has been an important source of inspiration for him. He has been there three times over the last two years. One place that enchanted him was Greenland, where he spent five weeks this summer, living with the Inuits.

"I was staying in a village of 400 people. I went to study and observe the landscape for a series of paintings I will be working on during the next 12 months.

"The experience of the landscape, the peaceful and pristine environment, is breath-taking. The people wanted to know about Malta. They could not comprehend the size and the number of people who lived there. Only 50,000 live in Greenland, a country as big if not bigger than Europe."

He has plenty more projects in the pipeline, including the chance to be resident artist for a month at the Upernavik Museum in north Greenland.

"So in 2008 I shall be heading north again to watch the icebergs and the whales and to work with the Inuits of Greenland. This must be a first for a Maltese born!

"They have a saying in Greenland: 'If man cannot find peace in Greenland he will not find peace anywhere on earth'. I guess this is because the vast, pristine environment is overwhelming. So I shall be doing lots of research, walking in the wild and meeting Inuits to find out about their culture. If all goes well it should make interesting reading."

www.charlesbezzina.com